The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Alex]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

OK - let's split the 9% and 30% and go with 19.5%.

6% of 19.5% is still only just over 1% of all greenhouse gases.

You're missing the point. Not all greenhouse gasses cause warming if the amount present in the atmosphere increases. Water vapor, for example, does not cause long term warming. So when talking about factors changing the global temperature, if you can ignore water vapor then then remaining X percent of gasses are what you need to reduce if you want to try and prevent additional increases. And carbon is a very large percentage of the change causing gasses.

The source of your numbers is being willfully ignorant of the actual processes involved (and also using made up numbers).

Another analogy: a bacterial infection is causing a fever of 102 degrees. That is only a 3% contribution to the overall body temperature. Do you not fight the infection because the digestive system is responsible for 97% of the body's temperature?

Of course not, because even though it is small that 3% has huge repercussions. You're smart enough to know that increases in input do not necessarily produce linear increases in output and that closed systems can show large changes from minor perturbations.

So, why do you find it so hard to believe in this situation?